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CRISPR

What’s to come for CRISPR in 2017?
In the short time since its discovery, CRISPR has enabled tremendous scientific advances that have caught headlines and spotlight around the world. Today we’re looking to the future to see where CRISPR might go in 2017. Like every other year, it’ll shock and stun us with innovative and cutting-edge advances quicker than we ever thought possible, so this is just a starting point.
In 2017 we believe CRISPR…

A Chinese group of scientists has become the first to inject a person with edited genes using the revolutionary and still controversial CRISPR-Cas9 technique.
Key points:
CRISPR-Cas9 can trim away unwanted parts of the genome
A protein that slows down the cell's immune response was trimmed out of the DNA
The edited DNA was cultivated and injected back into the patient
A patient with aggressive lung cancer received the modified cells as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital in Chengdu.

Scientists have discovered how to edit DNA to repair 'broken genes' to cure incurable diseases - and potentially extend human lifespan.
Until now, it has not been possible to alter genes in the brain, heart, liver and eyes - the root of many debilitating illnesses.
Since the cells in these vital organs tend not to divide, it is difficult to gain access to make changes.
However, researchers at the Salk Institute claim to have landed on 'the holy grail of gene editing', which can delicately and smoothly cut through DNA.

You've probably heard of CRISPR - the gene editing tool that essentially lets scientists cut and paste DNA, removing things like HIV and muscular dystrophy from our cells - and now scientists have discovered a way to edit RNA with just as much precision.
RNA is DNA's close biological cousin, responsible for translating messages from the nucleus to the rest of the cell, and being able to change it could open up all-new disease-fighting possibilities.

This week, scientists will gather in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting devoted to gene therapy—a long-struggling field that has clawed its way back to respectability with a string of promising results in small clinical trials. Now, many believe the powerful new gene-editing technology known as CRISPR will add to gene therapy’s newfound momentum. But is CRISPR really ready for prime time? Science explores the promise—and peril—of the new technology.